Performance anxiety has colored Caraway’s entire career in mixed martial arts. It wasn’t at all out of the ordinary for him to throw up prior to a fight. He stayed away from food in the hours before getting in the cage for just such a reason.

On “The Ultimate Fighter 14,” he was portrayed as something of a head case who psyched himself out long before the first punch was thrown.

This time around, Caraway said he felt different. In the buildup to his debut at bantamweight, he felt like a professional athlete. For perhaps the first time in his career, he stopped eating the junk food that was afforded by fighting at featherweight. He trained to his fullest effort, and around people that cared about him.

“I had zero nervousness for this fight,” he said. “Zero. It was ridiculous. On the show, they kind of made it a bigger deal than it was. Not necessarily a bigger deal, but they kind of twisted it on the show and made it look like I was scared and nervous to fight. It wasn’t that at all.

“The truth is I have performance anxieties and I put so much pressure on myself. I hold myself so highly, I don’t want to make a mistake. I don’t want to look stupid on national TV or to the crowd.”

Caraway (17-5 MMA, 2-0 UFC) looked just the opposite in his fight, which served on the FX-televised preliminary-card of the event at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary. While opponent Mitch Gagnon (8-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) put him in trouble in the first round, he was able to recover and push a faster pace. Early in the third round, he submitted Gagnon with a rear-naked choke.

“I felt like I was almost a little too relaxed,” Caraway said.

Not relaxed enough, however, to notice when Gagnon hit him with an uppercut, breaking a tooth and crumpling others inside his mouth.

For his troubles, the UFC thankfully awarded him a $65,000 “Submission of the Night” bonus.

He’s now 2-0 in the octagon. Relaxation clearly suits him.

Caraway has taken his fair share of criticism in the past, not only for a grappling-heavy style, but his longstanding relationship with former Strikeforce champ Miesha Tate. But he’s trying to turn around the former while forgetting the latter.

“I want to be an enjoyable fighter,” he said. “Sometimes, I just take guys down and submit them, and people say I’m a boring fighter. But I honestly don’t think it is my fault that I can take people down and submit them in round one. Fighting in the UFC, and fighting higher competition … I think you’re going to see a lot better fights out of me because people are going to push me to be the best.”

When it comes to fighting, Caraway said it’s never been a question of talent, but putting that talent to use when the pressure is on.

With the extra money, he now plans on paying off student loans and taking his parents on a trip. He said it’s the least he can do for their support.

It was his mom that got him into wrestling at a young age to get out his extra energy. When that physical activity later morphed into a career, what was supposed to be fun became a burden on his mind. But maybe he’s letting that go.

It’s certainly made the hours before a fight a little more pleasant.

“For some reason, everything was clicking,” he said. “I just couldn’t feel any better.”

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